French arrogance and a Swedish mindset - Learnings from my internship as a video editor.

I had just finished my studies and received my bachelor’s degree in digital media at Stockholm University when I first joined Local Glimpse as a video editor intern in the fall of 2017. I remember having been granted a spot at the media management master’s program at KTH Royal Institute of Technology during the summer and having to take the decision of either studying or doing an internship. I chose the latter.

While I did indeed learn and develop many new technical skills during my tenure as an intern, what I value the most is the self-actualized mindset that I started to tap in to. I didn’t realize how much one person can do and accomplish by letting go of self-doubt. I can thank my two French bosses (hence the arrogance part) Ben & Mathieu for inspiring me to think that I can do things if I just put my mind to it. Not to be confused with a “fake it until you make it” attitude, but more of a “if there is a will, there is a way”.

In one of my first projects, I had to interview and film the owner of a video game bar in Stockholm for a series about local entrepreneurs. Now usually, when you’re new to a job — or in my case an intern — you’re usually accompanied by some degree of hand-holding. There was none of that here. I was thrown in to the deep end to handle it all on my own. Not in a heinous way, but more so in a “of course you’ll do this, why not?” kind of way. I was surprised and intimidated, but nevertheless I went on about it. Lo and behold I actually could do it by myself. Since then, every time we’ve had a new project I’ve decided to just throw myself in and see what happens. The self-doubt I think will always be there to some degree, but I think that if you’re not nervous from time to time, then the juice isn’t flowing quite right. From then on, I’ve continuously jumped in to challenges head-on because again, if there is a will, there is a way.

I’m sure I would have learnt a lot from keeping on with my studies, but I’m fairly certain I would not have experienced the French arrogance that presented me with so many wonderful opportunities to develop my character and confidence. So what did I learn from my internship? A little French arrogance can get you a long way.